M - Medium bodied, with medium carbonation. Seems like it could have used a fuller body.

O - Tasty, but didn't live up to the hype for me. Nothing really off putting, just really didn't come together as well as I would have hoped. (a little too much ginger, a little too light of body). I'm sure I will be in the minority here, but I like Sam Adams Fat Jack better.

There are no words to express the perfection of this brew, but I will try. As soon as you pour this brew, you are delighted with the aroma and colour it has as it hits the side of your goblet from the bottle and the smooth head holds nice lacing and has very beautiful retention. You take a whiff. This is pure delight. Autumn has sprung! This is fresh pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top. Nothing is overdone here. The spices are perfect, the colour is perfect, and the head is beautiful. The only test left now is the taste. As this liquid hit my lips, my eyes rolled back in pure ecstacy. The mouthfeel is cream and the taste is superb. This is pure thanksgiving that you remember as a child. This is your grandmothers pumpkin pie served to you on your favorite plate as you gazed out the window at the changing coloured leaves while simultaniously opening your first christmas gift.

I first experienced the pumking 3 years ago, and I have tried over 70 pumpkin beers since then. No pumpkin beer compares to the Pumking.

I find the score for this beer and indeed many of Southern Tier's well-known offerings (i.e., Choklat, Creme Brulee, Mokah, etc) to be totally bewildering quite frankly. Yes, taste is subjective and all, but I kind of assumed beer nerds would reject the kind of artificially flavored malt-based beverage that this is as, well, a goddamn artificially flavored malt-based beverage. AKA: not really beer. AKA: "I can mix (and ruin) my own drinks, thanks."

Pumking is just dreadful, vile stuff. Not just one of the worst beers I've ever tasted, but one of the worst things, period. It tastes like candy corn in beer form, but with all the good attributes of candy corn extracted, leaving only pure evil. This is the Guy Fieri of pumpkin beers. I'd rather drink a Bud Lime-A-Rita to be honest. Incidentally, Lime-A-Rita has a score of 59. Perhaps if it was released by a craft brewery and sold as a sour fruit beer it'd get a 90, whaddyathink? I mean, who gives a shit if it's packed with artificial flavors and sweeteners and is more mixed-drink than beer? Not Beer Advocaters, evidently.

***Guilty pleasures review coming right up***
Admitidly, I generally celebrate beers of experimental quality, but disguard those that seem more of a gimmic than quality. Pumpkin beers usually fall in this catagory for me, but beers like this one are quickly changing my perception of what Pumpkin Ales can be... or already are.

Pumpking is truely amazing with its bright copper (acturally orange) color, brilliant clarity and lively efforvescence. A creamy head carries a dainty structure yet retains with a sheet across the glass. Low on lace, the beer celebrates the oils and starch that encompass pumpkin beers.

From the onset, the beer demonstrates a sturdy backbone of amber (bread crusty) malts and large caramel sweetness. Freshly baked toast, roasted pumpkin, and graham crackers come to mind. A sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, almond, and hazelnut do just enough to emphasize the pumpkin quality in complementary fashion. A buttery praline-like sweetness is just the pillow that the savory crust notes deserve.

The body is firm, rich, and non-waivering. Creamy, bready and with a robust spicy sweetness that I would not have expected from a beer this drinkable. The return of graham cracker dryness and aftertaste is all I need to keep comming back.

This beer is a gem, comming from a guy who has drank a ton of Pumpkin Ales and haven't enjoyed many.

Smell: All rights, friends, so, it smells greatly of oven-fresh pumpkin pie. Who's with me? Who the HAPPY HALLOWEEN is with me?

Taste: Sweet caramel malts plunged deep into fresh pumpkin puree and liberally coated in a pumpkin pie spice blend and smoothed over with a touch of vanilla creme. I'm sure it's been said dozens of times over, but it's rather pumpkin pie-like, with the malts even mimicking a flavor of rich, crisp graham cracker crust garnished with candy corn. Subtle hop presence and bitterness. Drying finish with a lingering spiced pumpkin taste and some slight alcohol warmth.

Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Medium carbonation.

Drinkability: Excellent for a pumpkin ale! Look, whoever is giving you advice like, "don't bother with Pumking" is no friend of yours. Take your vengeful fists and clock that mofo in the mouth and spit on their prone, beaten body, because they aren't helping you at all. Oh, and Happy Halloween!!

Poured from a 22 oz bottle. Vibrant copper, dense amber color with a small white head that transformed into a thin layer of bubbles resting at only the edges of the beer along the glass. Not much lacing to speak of when all was said and done. The aroma was full of pumpkin spices, cinnamon bread, and toasted malts. It wasn't noticeable at first, but about halfway through, after the beer warmed up a bit, hints of vanilla bean came out, along with a (very) mild bitterness from the hops. The taste followed the smell pretty closely, with pumpkin, yeast, malt, and maybe a bit of vanilla - very "holiday" smelling. Carbonation was medium, the body was slick and a little too heavy to be called "thin", and the higher ABV was hidden pretty well.

Overall, a good pumpkin beer. I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin flavor beers, but I still enjoy trying them. This one isn't bad, but I'm still searching for that one that changes the way I look at pumpkin beers forever.

I can see why a lot of people enjoy this beer: it smells like pumpkin pie! I rarely like pumpkin beers for this exact reason. I want them to taste like pumpkin, the vegetable, not pumpkin pie, the dessert.

The taste is better than the overpowering scent. This beer smells like margarine, nutmeg, and cinnamon. The flavor is more neutral, but I can't say that it tastes like beer. The mouthfeel and appearance are both nice.

I won't be asking for this again. I prefer Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale because it's more vegetal and less dessert-scented. This beer would be great for someone who doesn't mind a sweeter beer with some artificial notes.

T-Pumking is right this is not light on the flavor of pumpkin, nutmeg and cinnamon is there as well as a kind of vanilla cream taste.

M-Good throughout medium body, to me it has a bit of a sharp finish that im not particularly fond of maybe from the spice, flavor hangs around for a bit which is nice makes me want to comeback for more.

O- My favorite pumpkin beer, it's one i get excited to drink for both the flavor and the time of the year it signifies. Delicious taste, beautiful color.

Southern Tier Imperial Pumking Ale 9.0% alcohol seasonal. Given to me as a gift. Festive Halloween decor with a "king" pumpkin on the label and presented in a 22oz. bomber. Poured into pint glass.

A- Pours a beautiful amber colored fluid that produces a inch and a half head that gently falls to a frothy top and decent patch lacing.
Excellent for the style.

S- This is one hell of a pumpkin ale when it come to smell. Overall the closest scent to a pumpkin pie i've ever smelled no lie! All spice, cinnamon, light caramel, and fresh cooked pumpkin.

T-M- Not overpowering but to the point fresh pumpkin ale... Quirky bites of pumpkin pie and all spice followed by cinnamon with notes of tangy caramel malts with stiff alcohol warmth.
Mouthfeel is good with just enough carbonation to smoothly roll over the strength of the flavors. Overall taste and mouthfeel is good with little to prevent you from likeing this beer unless pumpkin isn't your thing.

D- All and all this is one excellent holiday beer with smooth and sweet qualities that make it a great addition to a turkey dinner or any large meal. Cheers to the innovations of the craft beer movement!

L -- Nice orange color with a basically no head to speak of. Looks still. Not very appealing
S -- The nose on this is unreal. Rice pudding, pumpkin pie spices, cream, pumpkin, malts
T -- Tastes fairly similar to how it smells, but there is a sharp boozy note to this brew that lowers its taste score considerably.
F -- Nice and robust
O -- Definitely not worth the $15 for a 4-pack. Dogfish Head Punkin Ale is a better bet

Picked this one up finally thanks to a very generous BA who sent me down a couple of them. I had been waiting forever to try this one, and missed out on it last year. Served cold, right out of the fridge per instructions. It was served in an oversized wine glass and consumed on 09/22/2008.

The pour was simply stunning. A very rich and very hazy looking orange liquid came gurgling out of the bottle, hitting the glass with decent enough force to throw up a nice two inch layer of off white head. Nice retention kept this one hanging around for a good long while before finally settling down into a thin layer of white across the top that stayed until the very end and left behind a very nice layer of side glass lace.

The aroma was about as rich as you can get. This was the most decadent, dessert like beer that I have ever run across. This smelled more like a pumpkin pie then my grandma's ! Super sweet with lots of gingerbread, and sweet cookie goodness. This was about as good as it gets. Translated over as perfectly as you could have imagined into the flavor. Huge notes of cinnamon, pumpkin spice, gingerbread, everything you could imagine. This was just colossal with no hint at all of any abv. Rich and decadent in the taste and well as the feel,. The only drawback was this was soo rich with sugar it was hard to drink too much of it as it became a little bit tough after a bit. Aside from that this was about as good as it gets.

Overall, wow. I have never tasted anything like this it was just tremendous. This was the most perfect fall dessert I could think of. Rich, sweet, decadent. This was better then I ever imagined it would be. Overall I was floored and would have to recommend this to anyone!

A: The beer is cloudy amber-orange in color and poured with a finger high white head that quickly settled into a thin layer of bubbles consistently covering the surface. A medium to high amount of carbonation is visible.
S: There are inviting aromas of sweet pumpkin pie in the nose, which almost makes this beer smell like a dessert.
T: While there is some malty sweetness and flavors of pumpkins and spices in the in taste, these are nicely balanced with some hop bitterness.
M: It feels medium-bodied on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
D: The beer is very easy to drink because the sweet flavors in the taste aren't cloying because of the underlying hops and the alcohol content is very well masked.

t: big pumpkin upfront followed by a big spice hit..lots of nutmeg, cinnamon, clove. those are immediately followed by a thick pie crust flavor (which is really quite a treat to have in a beer) and some vanilla beans. there is a small alcohol presence in the end here to which helps to balance out the sweetness a bit

m: medium, but on the heavier side. carbonation is on par with most pumpkin ales, if not a tad bit higher

o: it is like alcoholic pumpkin pie. i enjoy it - i think i enjoy basic pumpkin ales a bit more - but this beer is nice to sip on. i can see it being a bit polarizing, and if someone were to not like this i wouldn't hold it against them. there is a lot going on in this beer, but i dig it.

S - As amazing as it may sound, the overwhelming aroma of the beer was --- pumpkin. The aromas are fairly on par with that of pumpkin pie. Fairly sweet, malt dominated beer.

T - If you're a fan of pumpkin ales you will love this one. The flavor overall is not too complex and very straightforward. Too me, it perfectly resembles that of a pumpkin pie; in liquid form of course. The hint of vanilla in it resembles the whipped cream on top of the pie oddly enough. Leaves a pleasantly sweet aftertaste. An incredibly well done pumpkin ale.

M - A fairly full bodied beer with a perfect amount of carbonation - not too overwhelming. A very sharp, crisp feeling beer.

O - As a big fan of pumpkin ales and the festive feel they bring, Southern Tier did not let me down. Everything was spot on to what I expected if not better. If you like pumpkin any/everything, you'll love this one. An awesome fall beer that I'll be running back to the store to stock up on -- I feel like will be even better aged.

The color is a clear deep copper with s finger of brownish/tan head and some nice lacing left on the glass.

The smell is sweet with a big brown sugar aroma. There is some pumpkin spice aroma here in the nose with a nice dough aroma mixed in.

The taste is pumpkin but has a juicy flavor like a fruit instead of a vegetable. The is some nice spicy flavor here like brown sugar and cinnamon. There is even a slight orange peel flavor that comes out toward the back.

The feel of this is actually medium to light bodied. This is a lot to this beer but it is highly drinkable and has a nice juicy feel that hides the higher ABV of this beer.

Pours a clear light copper orange with a 1 inch fizzy orange-white head that fades to an oily film on the top of the beer. No lacing on this one on the drink down. Kind of a disappointing appearance. Smell is very complex with caramel malt, biscuits, actual pumpkin puree, and a wide array of pumpkin pie spices - cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. Taste is of malt/bread/biscuit/crust, unsweetened pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and the aforementioned spices. There is a slight spice bitterness that sticks the the tongue after each sip. This beer has a higher level of carbonation with a crisp and dry finish. Overall, this is a good pumpkin ale that is somewhat different that I was expecting. I was thinking that this could be a creamy, sweet pumpkin milkshake of a beer but I like this one as it is.

The best pumpkin brew I've tasted. I usually don't care for the pumpkin brews due to the fact the pumpkin is always secondary to the spices which overpower the entire flavor. I like the fact pumpkin takes the foreground in this beer
I get a roasted pumpkin flavor with vanilla and spices.
They do have seemed to change the recipe from last year though- seems to be more of a hop presence which I like because its balances the sweetness.
A well made beer and I won't drink any other pumpkin brews...

Don't know where this came from or even who bought it but it was on the table at a friends place last week when we were sampling beers and man was it a find. Don't know anything about the brewery but after trying this and their Hoppe Pale Ale I'm gonna do some research on these guys.

It came from a 22 oz bottle with some pretty cool artwork on it. The beer poured an orange/rust color that was very clear and had an off-white, almost orange head that faded quickly. Smelled strong of pumpkin pie (as all these types of beer do) but with some extra spices that really made it stand out from the other 6 or 7 pumpkin beers ive tried.

It tasted great, that is it tasted like pumpkin pie and good beer. No idea what the alcohol content is and the website doesn't say either but it was balanced well with the flavors. It also had a thick body that was both good and bad depending on if you want to chug this beer or sip on it with thanksgiving dinner. Overall its a pretty drinkable beer and I would like to find more of this stuff.